


we could be so glorious

by goodmorningbeloved



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: (a lot), Alternate Universe - Demons, Creative License, M/M, the drake brothers are demons here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 03:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9415691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodmorningbeloved/pseuds/goodmorningbeloved
Summary: “That is the tenth demon summoning this week."This time, it takes Sam.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 1) i got this as a prompt on tumblr, but it reminded me of how much i actually love and crave to write supernatural AUs, so this is turning into a series, whee  
> . if the original requester is reading this, please know i Love you  
> 2) disclaimer that i don't pretend to be an authority on demons?? i did surface research but mostly took creative license with specifics of summoning here, and i'll probably be making up my own rules in this AU, because tbh the specifics of demon summoning unsettles me a lot. ~~"so you go ahead and write fic about it?" "yeah"~~ bear with me : <  
> 3) any & all typos are my own fault, feel free to point out any glaring ones urgh

“That is the tenth demon summoning this week,” Nathan whistles lowly as Sam begins to feel the familiar prickle, the familiar tug of being _called_ to another plane entirely– “Holy shit,” he hears his brother say just before he warps, because Nathan probably wasn’t expecting the summoning to grab _Sam_ this time, but, well.

Reality trades in the gold-laden ruins of his and his brother’s home for another, this one with a tall, tall ceilings, walls adorned by magnificent paintings, and a dimmed chandelier, a transition that happens in a blur of smoke and the faint smell of what the humans call nicotine. This is far from the first time that he has been summoned, so when he fully settles into this plane, the _human_  plane, he simply waves away the tendrils of smoke with faint annoyance.

Samuel has seen his fair share of summoners – the old and the young, the manic and the frightened – but he has to say, this is a first: A kneeling young man wearing a suit, with sleeked-back, dark brown hair and a small, clever smile.

The last of the smoke dissipates, and Samuel tucks his unlit cigarette behind an ear. If the stories down below have been true and this  _is_ the kid that’s been haphazardly yet effortlessly summoning demons all week, then he doesn’t expect to be freed so quickly. He wonders what this one wants and hopes, faintly, that it’s interesting; usually, people either want sex, money, or power.

“Samuel?” his summoner asks, straightening to his feet. He’s half a head shorter than Samuel’s human form.

“Oh, so you _do_ summon us by name,” Sam comments, flicking some unknown gray residue from his shoulder. It’s interesting to note what he arrives wearing to the human plane each time; today, it’s a loose dress shirt and slacks, his tail out of sight. “And here I was thinking you just closed your eyes, threw out the invocation, and hoped for the best candidate.” He wonders, though, how this one found his name.

“I rarely do anything with my eyes closed,” his summoner says evenly. “Did I piss off the others? I had to work my way through a few of them to get your name.”

Sam smiles, bemused at the laissez-faire attitude. “Some of ‘em. We’ve been summoned for worse than finicky humans, though, I’ll tell you that. Now, what do _you_  want?”

The human bristles, possibly at being called finicky, but seems to brush it off. “You _are_ the demon my father summoned, say, twenty years ago?”

“Maybe,” Sam says without much feeling. He’s been around for a while, seen too many human faces, most of which have been too plain to remember. “What was his name?”

The kid hesitates, like he’s contemplating a lie. Sam knows how those looks go. “Adler,” he provides.

The name does sound familiar. Sam thinks for a moment. “The one who wanted to turn into a fish?” he wonders out loud, but then he catches sight of the human again, his decidedly unfish-like form, and reasons otherwise. 

“A fish?” the human asks, brow scrunching downwards in plain confusion. “What for?”

“I don’t know what you humans get up to,” Sam replies with a lazy shrug. His fingers itch; he wishes the kid had summoned him _after_ he’d smoked a joint. “Adler. The one who wanted money?” Now he remembers: A young, fresh face, eyes perhaps tinged with something desperate, words pleading for _glory, please, glory_. He sees the resemblance now to the younger human, evidently Adler’s son.

The human’s gaze lights up with interest–this one, Samuel decides, does not look so plain as the others. He can’t quite decide why. “Sounds like him,” the human says with a nod. “I’d like you to undo whatever he asked for.”

The request catches Sam off guard.

“Sorry,” the human says. “I’d like you to undo whatever my father asked for, please.”

Sam holds up a finger. He looks around pointedly, where they are surrounded by the lavish interior of the human’s bedroom, and then at the human’s impeccable clothes. “Your father is still rich, right?” A nod. “You’ve obviously benefited from that, right?” Another nod, albeit a bit tighter. “And now you want it to…go away?” A third, final nod.

 _Humans_. Samuel would kill - not just figuratively - for somewhere nicer than some ruins to stay in, and here is this human, living in the lap of luxury, and they want it gone. _Finicky._

“Why?” Sam asks, blunt.

“Because _he’s_ got enough to last him a lifetime and then some,” the human replies. “He wants more. Specifically, he wants me to take over, so I can run the family business and he can live out the rest of his life knowing he has someone getting their hands dirty for him.  _I_ want something else.”

An interesting notion. It comes close to some spiteful requests that Sam’s heard in the past, but this human doesn’t seem just spiteful–there’s an air of bravado and determination about him. And, evidently, a dubious moral compass. “Why don’t you just ask for _something else,_ then?” It would certainly simplify things, and then he could get to his cigarette quicker–

A flash of irritation sweeps across the human’s face. “I don’t need to _ask_  for it. I can do it myself.” He squares his shoulders a little, a hand coming up to adjust his tie. Samuel wonders, now thoroughly amused, if this human summoned him in the middle of some high-end party just to ruin his father’s standing. “All I need–” Sam raises a brow, and the human cuts himself off, sighs, and amends, “All I am _asking_  you to do is to undo whatever streak of good luck you granted my father. I’ll do the rest myself, and you can go back to your…” The human’s dark, pretty eyes flicker to the cigarette. “…vices.”

Sam laughs, just a little. “All right, but you’re forgetting the most important part here, Adler,” he says.

“Rafael,” the human snaps. “Rafael. That’s my name.” He says it so quickly and remorselessly that Sam is almost convinced–but this one seems smart, smart enough to know the power of real names, smart enough not to reveal all of his cards at once.

 _Touchy, too,_  Sam thinks in passing. “Rafael,” he says with a smile, and he steps as close as he can to the edge of the summoning circle to whisper conspiratorially, “I am _all_ at your service as _soon_  as you tell me what I get out of it.”

The human - _Rafael, huh, the name of an angel_  - raises an eyebrow and doesn’t budge an inch. “I heard you like to sightsee around our world,” he says coolly. “If things go my way, I will soon be en route to finding a lost pirate ship. You can come.”

 _Ah, shit, Sully, what did you tell him about me?_  Sam thinks grimly. The offer sounds tempting, until–  _He and I? “_ What makes you think I’ll want to stick around afterwards to see what _you_  do?”

“Call it a hunch.” Rafael smirks, finally drawing away to rummage through a drawer. What he procures makes Sam’s heart _sing_   _–_ a packet of cigarettes. Human ones, of course, and expensive-looking – the ones in _his_  world are already barely a match. Funny, how one thing humans have excelled at is replicating hell in a stick. Rafael waves it at him casually. “There’s these, too. I heard you like them strong.”

Sam hums in pretend thought, reaching up to take the cigarette from behind his ear. It’s the last of the smokes from his _last_  excursion to the human world, and if he refuses here, he knows it’ll be back to the ones at _home_  – the ones that taste too much like the ash of his world to be enjoyable. But it really isn’t a matter of _if_ anymore. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Rafael,” he says, feeling himself begin to grin – and a similar smile begins to grow on the human’s. _His_  human, now, it seems.

“Good to hear that, Samuel,” Rafael holds a hand out.

As Sam shakes the human’s hand – delicate, mortal, but unyielding flesh in the grip of his own – he finds himself divulging, “Samuel Drake.”

Rafael smiles like he knows it isn’t Sam’s real name too. “Pleased to officially meet you, Samuel Drake.” He relinquishes Sam’s hand and begins the process of dismantling the circle so that Sam could step out – oh, and Sam is beginning to look forward to _this_ , and not just for those cigarettes.

“Thank you kindly,” Sam says when he finally steps out of the broken circle. In the middle of the human’s room there, he stretches, and he feels the illusion from the circle slip away like a cloak from his shoulders. When he glances at Rafael, the human is staring not in horror, but in mild fascination at the wings tucked between Samuel’s shoulder blades and the tail now visible behind him. He’s about to assure Rafael that he’ll appear like a normal human to everyone else, but it seems that Rafael already knows that, judging from the way he confidently leads Sam to the door. On the other side, he can hear soft music and chatter. _Haven’t been to a party in a while._

“Wait a minute,” he says at the door, halting Rafael by the elbow.

The man looks at his hand, then at him.

“Before we go and ruin your dad’s evening,” Sam says, raising his cigarette between them, “got a light?”

Rafael hums, and it doesn’t escape Sam’s notice that his gaze lingers. “Sure,” he says, procuring the pack of cigarettes and a small red lighter and handing them to Sam. “Though I’m surprised you don’t have the ability to, what, light them on your own.”

Sam lights the cigarette between his lips before pocketing the remaining pack and the lighter. “We can do a lot but, unfortunately, not that.” He takes a drag, relishing in the sweet, sweet smoke that fills his lungs.

Rafael is still watching him. Sam finds that he likes being watched by this one. “Will I find out what _a lot_ is soon?”

Sam chuckles as he exhales, watching the smoke billow out between them in a way not dissimilar from the smoke that brought him to this human. “We’ll see,” he says, amused. “We’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> 4) i'm [ughrafe](http://ughrafe.tumblr.com) on tumblr, come yell at me or give me prompts bc we need more AUs for these two. also fics in general. /drops dead


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